{"id":40802242551,"date":"2019-07-16T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-16T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/?p=40802242551"},"modified":"2021-01-25T11:22:03","modified_gmt":"2021-01-25T16:22:03","slug":"leading-academics-propose-new-jersey-legislative-redistricting-reforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/2019\/07\/16\/leading-academics-propose-new-jersey-legislative-redistricting-reforms\/","title":{"rendered":"Leading Academics Propose New Jersey Legislative Redistricting Reforms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p style=\"text-align:left\"><em>Report calls for increasing the number of independent members and establishing mapmaking criteria <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A working group of leading academics and lawyers who have been active in promoting redistricting reform has issued \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/documents\/improving_nj_legapportion_july2019.pdf\">Improving New Jersey\u2019s Legislative Apportionment Process<\/a>,\u201d a comprehensive report on reforming the state\u2019s decennial legislative redistricting process.\u00a0 The group\u2019s key recommendations include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Retain the\nbipartisan commission structure, ensuring that commissioners appointed by the\nparties reflect the state\u2019s diversity.<\/li><li>Increase the\nnumber of independent commissioners from one to three and appoint them at the\nstart of the apportionment process.<\/li><li>Create\napportionment guidelines that prioritize communities of interest and partisan\nfairness but avoid formulaic requirements that impinge on the commission\u2019s\nability to balance and reconcile competing principles.<\/li><li>Increase\nopportunities for public comment and extend the period for comment. <\/li><li>Facilitate\ninformed public comment with disclosure of precinct and voting data, including\ndigital tools to allow all citizens to offer comments in a timely manner.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nworking group was formed early this year in response to legislative efforts to\namend the current apportionment process, which ultimately faced opposition from\ngood government and civil rights advocates across the political spectrum. The\ngroup\u2019s work took on added impetus after last month\u2019s U.S. Supreme Court\ndecision that left solutions to partisan gerrymandering in the hands of the\nstates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nreport was authored by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Patrick\nMurray<\/strong>, Director, Monmouth University\nPolling Institute<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Samuel\nWang<\/strong>, Director of Princeton\nGerrymandering Project, Princeton University<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Yurij\nRudensky<\/strong>, Redistricting Counsel,\nBrennan Center for Justice, New York University School of Law<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Brigid\nCallahan Harrison<\/strong>, Professor of Political Science and\nLaw, Montclair State University<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ronald\nChen<\/strong>,&nbsp;University Professor and\nDistinguished Professor of Law, Rutgers University Law School<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ben\nWilliams<\/strong>, Legal Analyst, Princeton\nGerrymandering Project, Princeton University<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nreport recommends maintaining the current bipartisan commission structure, but\ncalls for expanding the number of independent members appointed by the Chief\nJustice and making those members a part of the process from the outset.&nbsp; Having a panel of arbiters will help ensure that\nagreed-upon rules are applied consistently and should result in a more deliberative process. This would be a\nmarked improvement over the current dynamic where each party vies to\nmeet the preferences of a single \u201ctie-breaker.\u201d&nbsp; The proposed reforms also\nrequire the commission to solicit public input over an expanded time period.\nThis will require slightly shifting the state\u2019s primary election calendar in\nredistricting years, similar to how it is handled in Virginia, which also holds\nits legislative elections in odd-numbered years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nreport also proposes criteria to guide the commission\u2019s deliberations,\nemphasizing communities of interest and partisan fairness, while also\nrespecting municipal boundaries \u2013 a touchstone in the state\u2019s political\nculture.&nbsp; Additionally, the proposal calls for codifying widely accepted\nstandards of equal population and racial representation in the state\nconstitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\nhave proposed a bold, yet common sense approach to improving the current\nsystem. It increases public participation in the process while also addressing\nconcerns raised by legislators who proposed changes last year. Under this plan,\nthe legislative map\u2019s outcome will not hinge on the priorities of a single\nindependent member,\u201d said Murray of Monmouth University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNew Jersey\nwas a leader in establishing one of the first redistricting commissions. Now\nthat a&nbsp;dozen other states have adopted commissions, we can learn from\ntheir&nbsp;experience. If we implement those&nbsp;lessons, we&nbsp;can give all\ngroups and parties a fair shot at representation in Trenton,\u201d said Wang of\nPrinceton University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis\nproposal fuses national best-practices with New Jersey values. The much needed renovation\nwould address the known flaws of the current process while promoting fairness\nand establishing a system that is community driven and accountable to voters,\u201d\nsaid Rudensky of New York University\u2019s Brennan Center for Justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEnsuring\nthat New Jersey\u2019s legislature is representative of its citizens begins with\nimproving our redistricting process, so that our redistricting commission is\nrepresentative of New Jersey\u2019s diversity, and the redistricting process\nprovides for transparency and facilitates public participation,\u201d said Harrison\nof Montclair State University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFair\nredistricting will not be achieved through indiscriminate use of formulas or\nalgorithms, but will require a broad-based approach that includes broad and\neffective public input and the ability to reconcile often competing\nredistricting principles,\u201d said Chen of Rutgers University, the former New\nJersey Public Advocate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn recent decades, states have enacted bold reforms to make\ntheir redistricting processes transparent and open to all. Adopting the best\npractices from those systems would bring New Jersey to the forefront of the\nnational movement for fair districts,\u201d said Williams of Princeton\nUniversity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Click here for the full <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/documents\/improving_nj_legapportion_july2019.pdf\">Improving New Jersey\u2019s Legislative Apportionment Process <\/a><\/strong>report.   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Report calls for increasing the number of independent members and establishing mapmaking criteria A working group of leading academics and lawyers who have been active in promoting redistricting reform has issued \u201cImproving New Jersey\u2019s Legislative Apportionment Process,\u201d a comprehensive report on reforming the state\u2019s decennial legislative redistricting process.\u00a0 The group\u2019s key recommendations include: Retain the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40802242551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802242551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40802242551"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802242551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40802242611,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802242551\/revisions\/40802242611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40802242551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40802242551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40802242551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}